Kevin De Bruyne does everything, manages everything, thinks everything. There is one minute left, and with a corner kick in his favor, the total footballer is taken by demons because all his teammates go to the shot like fry when he doesn’t touch, and he calls angrily for someone to come over and play short. with him, and Bakayoko arrives, afraid of being reprimanded for not knowing the first lesson of defending the result. It is the image of a soggy Belgium, for which a draw qualifies, but which has to hold on to De Bruyne and the incompetence of Ukraine, which leaves the Eurocup with more points than some of those who follow, because Slovakia and Romania also do great with the tie.
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Anatolii Trubin, Mykola Matviienko, Oleksandr Svatok (Andrii Yarmolenko, min. 80), Illia Zabarnyi, Oleksandr Tymchyk, Vitalii Mykolenko (Oleksandr Zinchenko, min. 57), Heorhii Sudakov, Volodymyr Brazhko (Taras Stepanenko, min. 69), Mykola Shaparenko (Vladyslav Vanat, min. 69), Artem Dovbyk and Roman Yaremchuk (Ruslan Malinovskyi, min. 69)
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Koen Casteels, Arthur Theate, Timothy Castagne, Wout Faes, Jan Vertonghen, Youri Tielemans (Orel Mangala, min. 61), Leandro Trossard (Yannick Carrasco, min. 61), Amadou Onana, Kevin De Bruyne, Jérémy Doku (Johan Bakayoko, min. 76) and Romelu Lukaku (Loïs Openda, min. 89)
Referee Anthony Taylor
Yellow cards
Wout Faes (min. 42), Dovbyk (min. 68)
Belgium finish second in the group because in their team everything starts and ends with De Bruyne, but City’s star cannot multiply himself, even though he tries, when Lukaku only scores disallowable goals, Doku becomes a predictable winger and Trossard is neither there nor expected, and all of that is also reproduced from midfield down.
The Belgians took to the field with that unspeakable uniform as a tribute to Tintin, although it would have been better to remember Snowy in white, with one gear less than on the second day and the handbrake applied, perhaps thinking that they had more to lose if They were neglected, because it was also Ukraine that came out in a more vulnerable position in the group, despite the four-way tie at the beginning of the day. The bird in hand, although without giving up carrying the weight of the game and that obsessive tendency, at times, to look for Lukaku, who stands out, opens spaces, intimidates, jumps and gets stuck in the small area.
The first part was unmitigated nonsense. Nobody knew what to propose. Belgium had the ball and Ukraine defended itself, hoping for who knows what, perhaps a miracle in the other group match, although it was unlikely. The Belgians arrived in the Ukrainian area, but with exasperating slowness. Doku did not start like he did against Romania, and the intentional balls that De Bruyne put in wherever he saw a gap were rarely interpreted correctly by his teammates.
For many minutes of the second half everything continued the same as in the first, although Ukraine had no choice but to wake up, but they did so in spurts, without continuity. The first chance was for Belgium, in a play that ended at the feet of Carrasco. The shot was hard and intentional, Trubin sent it to the corner.
Already in the final stretch, when Rebrov burned his ships and brought Yarmolenko, the moral support of his team, onto the field, the Ukrainians attempted a miracle. Malinovskyi almost did it in the 82nd minute, when he closed a corner kick that Casteels took off the line with difficulty. He had to be in actions of that nature, because his star Dovbyk, the Girona player, was seen little or nothing.
The match went to the exchange of blows in the final moments, because Ukraine left spaces that Belgium tried to take advantage of. Bakayoko had the best chance to finish the game, but Carrasco’s center was not good, and he did not find the best position for the shot. In Ukraine’s last reply, Sudakov found himself with a free ball in front, but he shot centered, into the hands of Casteels, so his team is left out with four points, due to a bad start to the Euro Cup.
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